Does the Different Ways of Internet Utilization Promote Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Rural China

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a key driver of both innovation and economic growth. It comprises two essential components: (i) discover entrepreneurial opportunities and (ii) accumulate entrepreneurial capital. Based on the Chinese Family Panel Studies in 2018, we consider online information acquisition and online learning to be important ways of discovering entrepreneurial opportunities. Additionally, we regard online social engagement and online businesses as essential channels of entrepreneurial capital accumulation. The study reveals that entrepreneurship is positively affected by online information acquisition, online learning, online social engagement, and online businesses. The robustness of our results has been confirmed in terms of model misspecification and the reverse causality of entrepreneurship to Internet utilization. Furthermore, evidence indicates that the impact of online learning on entrepreneurship is negatively moderated by human capital. Additionally, social capital and financial capital play a role in mediating the causal pathway linking online social engagement and online businesses to entrepreneurship.

The Impact of Risk Aversion and Migrant Work Experience on Farmers’ Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China

“…The facilitating effect is also particularly seen in off-farm entrepreneurship [14]. On the other hand, undoubtedly, long-term migrant work damages hometown social capital, which is closely related to local society and kinship, and causes the loss of personal credit, thus inflicting some negative effects on returning migrants' entrepreneurship [10], reducing their entrepreneurial success rate [52]. It is worth noting that returning migrants who cannot establish themselves in urban areas because of economic factors or policy restrictions have the same attitude toward self-employment as farmers who stay in their hometown [48].…”

“…Secondly, "Self-employed entrepreneurship" and "corporate entrepreneurship" are emerging at the same time [9]. Thirdly, an increasing number of migrant farmers are opting to return to their home villages to set up their businesses [10]. The primary challenges faced by Chinese farmers in the realm of entrepreneurship have yet to be successfully overcome, including credit constraints and poor ability to identify entrepreneurial opportunities.…”